Qi Aerista Post-Campaign Update #14

Hello Qi Aerista Supporters!

Here's our regular bi-weekly update to our wonderful backers.

In the past 2 weeks we have worked closely with our design partner Innozen on our new product design. Their team of designers started off with over 20 concept sketches based on the design requirements we have provided earlier. After collecting review and feedback from our side, their team converged and produced 5 high quality concepts that really captured our imagination.

Concept sketches posted on the wall for review (closely guarded by the office cat)

We have chosen 1 of them to continue its development work based on these criteria:

- Great overall aesthetics that sets us apart from other products

- Technically feasible based on our current brewing system design

- Needs only a relatively short time to finish the development

- Reasonable unit cost that falls within our target

Due to intellectual property and confidentiality reasons, we are not able to share with you the real looks of the concept designs. All we can say at this point is that the main changes include the handle, base, lid and exterior finishing. The core brewing mechanism remains the same, so no impact on functionality is expected. The number of parts needed is expected to be at par or even lower than our current design, which could further reduce our manufacturing cost and complexity.

Over the next 3 weeks or so we will work out the details of the ID and mechanical design with Innozen. We will also work with our manufacturing partners to perform cost estimation on our new design.

Regarding our current prototype, we have made a small but important improvement in the brewing mechanism design. You can imagine it's a specially designed shower head that helps to spread the water over the tea leaves inside the infuser for increased brewing efficiency. While we are not able to show how it looks due to confidentiality reasons, but you can see how the water is being spread below.

New water spreading effects

We have also done a few more brewing tests, including one with the famous pre-Qingming Dragonwell green tea. We will share our brewing and tasting results in our upcoming blog post.

Brewing pre-Qingming Dragonwell with Qi Aerista

In the next 2 weeks we will see:

- Working with Innozen and other partners on the details of our chosen new product design

- Continued discussions with current and prospective manufacturers on cooperation plans and due diligence